Some folk love the sea...

I've noticed that some people are simply in love with the ocean, mesmerised by it and addicted to it. I know I am, and I just wondered, does anyone else here feel the same?

 

I take a dim view of the ocean and was torn between voting "meh" and "Muro."

As much as I hate to take anything away from the more recent Star Wars films, I think Anakin expressed my frustration with the beach when he complained of how coarse sand is. Sand is a drag and it gets everywhere. Furthermore, salt water does not sake a thirst.

Give me a clear mountain lake surrounded by abundant trees any day. Trees are so sheltering and their leaves so soft!


That's not to say that the ocean with its beaches are without beauty and don't have their place in my reality. It's more the case that I don't understand why people lose their heads over the ocean.

 

Muro

 

Muro

 

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

 

When one beholds the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean skin, one forgets the tiger heart that beats beneath it, and would not willingly remember that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang. - Moby Dick.

Case in point... today I got serious sand-rash... I see Annakin's point of view, even if he is a whiney bitch.

But the correct answer is C, my mother.

The sea is my mother! She'll never take me back to her murky womb! - Beowulf.

 

I think that the ocean is quite nice to look at, but pretty much all other aspects are unpleasant to me. It is cold, in a "you are about to die" way, rather than a "refreshing" way. Despite the cold, I inexplicably get sunburned whenever I am exposed to it. Plus the mere thought of riding on it makes me feel like vomiting. I've never understood why anyone would want a life on the sea.

Curiously "the mere thought of riding on it makes me feel like vomiting" is also something I get told a lot when I approach women in bars.

 

I asked because it's phenomenal: Some folk really love it. It's almost like a subspecies of pelagic humans. I can understand fresh-water-forest folk, but rivers seem very unhygeinic compared to the sea (but better to drink, I admit). Also, I am absolutely immune to sea-sickness and I feel better out on the water than I do anywhere else on earth.

The danger is part of the exhilaration. To be floating above a fathomless abyss of unknown monsters, or to be thrown about by the waves and sucked down by the undertow while standing at the edge, it wakes up dormant parts of my brain.

Where else can you own every horizon and set off in any direction except the sea? The billion shifting shapes of the waves and nothing else but the sky. Pure freedom.

Oh, and the Great Barrier Reef is like a psychadelic acid-trip to another planet. OMG I love it so much! *drools*

 

Oh, yes, I forgot it's dangerous too. Reason number 56 to avoid going anywhere near the sea. Even when living next to it you aren't immune to a massive tidal wave destroying your house. And if the tidal wave doesn't get you, the constant erosion from salt spray will.

If I had to pick a "I feel better when X than I do anywhere else on earth" type of thing I would say it was when driving late at night. I'm all alone in a little cocoon, speeding (figuratively, not illegally) through the dark deserted streets, on my way home, preferably with a really good soundtrack blasting out of the stereo. I put on my tight-fitting leather driving gloves and feel like I'm Jason Statham in the Transporter, fully in control of the car and my destiny.

It's only spoiled when someone catches up behind me and I'm reminded that I actually drive like an old lady.

 

Okay, I'm not hearing a lot of support for the sea right now.

I think I'll give Scandinavia a chance to come online and answer the poll; there must be a few vikings with salt water in their veins among them.

 

If you want people to vote honestly you need to stop including Muro in your polls.

I, for one, don't mind the ocean. I live in New England though so it's only a half hr drive from my house to the beach. It's also only a half hr drive to a mountain to go snowboarding. At this time of year I'd rather be hurtling down a mountain at 30ish miles an hour than walking along a beach. Give it 3-4 months and I'll be more than happy to lounge out on a beach instead of being eaten alive by mosquitoes and other bugs.

 

I like swimming, and I like the fact we've got Gulf Stream warming Norway to be warmer than it could have been. But otherwise, I'm pretty indifferent to large bodies of water.

I went with Muro.

 

Some of my fondest memories from childhood are being on the amazing sandy beaches of Naushon, or swimming through the tidal currents at the 3rd bridge.

That said, given the choice, who wouldn't vote for Muro?

Muro 2012!, etc.

 

Love it. When I'm not at Uni or on this board I am usually surfing in it.

 

When we sailed across the Atlantic, I realized that the ocean was mostly a big, grayish body of liquid and nothing more. Then the whales showed up and suddenly this waste anti-desert turned into something beautiful.

 

Hooray! I thought you might, Zanza, being on the gold coast.

The whales and dolphins are so amazing too. When I was about eight, I saw a dolphin being born in the wild. And that dolphin grew up to be Bobo, King of Tangalooma.

Also, Muro.

 

Muro.

 

Now you're all talking about the sea instead of how you feel when driving a car. Geez, can't you guys stay on topic?

 

Muro

 

Meh, it's only useful to surf on.